


my heart is a flower that blooms (for you)

by latenightcoffeetalks



Series: one shots [2]
Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Barista Betty Cooper, F/M, Florist Betty Cooper, Fluff, Very much AU, so much cheese, they go to princeton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26686279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/latenightcoffeetalks/pseuds/latenightcoffeetalks
Summary: “Thank you, Betty.” Kevin looks over his shoulder. “So I see that lover boy finally made it inside.”Betty nods, securing a lid onto the black coffee. “These are for him.”“He doesn’t seem like a latte drinker,” Kevin notes.Betty shrugs. “Maybe it’s for a girlfriend.”Kevin nods. “That would make sense. He’s too hot to be single.”“Right?” Betty agrees before thinking. Her eyes widen and she slaps her hand over her mouth comically. “I did not just say that.”or, florist/barista betty falls for flower allergy-ridden jughead
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Series: one shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964221
Comments: 45
Kudos: 140





	my heart is a flower that blooms (for you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moons2stars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moons2stars/gifts).



> i wrote a one shot and i blame it on lisa because lisa sent me a picture of lili with flowers and i couldn't stop myself
> 
> also shoutout to lisa ([moons2stars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moons2stars/pseuds/moons2stars)) because she made me a beautiful mood board and i love her so much for it. also, she made the title. what an amazing person
> 
> and, as always (literally), sending the biggest hugs to janet ([easyluckyfree45](https://archiveofourown.org/users/easyluckyfree45/pseuds/easyluckyfree45)) for being the speediest and best beta ev-ah <3
> 
> i don't think i've read an a/u where they both go to princeton? i just didn't want to have to do any research, but there is no background on betty and jughead so just know that this is very much a/u
> 
> enjoy!

❀✿

There’s a man outside the flower shop. 

He’s stopped by at the same time for the past week and she’s starting to get suspicious. He only stays for about ten minutes and never comes inside. He looks at the coffee menu, admires the flowers, then leaves without ordering anything. 

Today, she’s seen his eyes flit to the doorknob three times. Betty hopes he’ll come in. It’s been so long since they’ve had any new customers.

“Are you admiring again, Betty?” Toni, her coworker and best friend asks, breezing past her to arrange the roses. 

Betty snaps her eyes away from the windows, face flushed. “No,” she dismisses. “Just wondering if he’s finally going to come in.”

“You could go out and ask him. Tell him what our specials are. Tell him we’re serving pumpkin drinks!”

Betty rolls her eyes, placing a daisy into a basket. “Please, Toni. He doesn’t look the type to be into our pumpkin-flavored specials.

“Oh, Betty,” says Toni, handing her a yellow rose. “Everyone is into pumpkin-flavored specials.”

❀

He does enter the shop, the day after her conversation with Toni.

“Hello,” he says quietly. Betty’s behind the counter today and Toni is on the floor helping out customers. 

“Hello!” she greets brightly. “What can I get you today?”

His eyes scan over the menu. “Uh, could I please have one coffee, black, and a...pumpkin spiced latte?” He looks down at his hand, where he seems to have scribbled down an order. “Extra whipped cream, with almond milk?”

She almost giggles at his confused state, marking the order down. “Coming right up! Feel free to browse our flower selections or take a seat.”

He nods, retreating to one of their tables near the carnations. He reaches into his pocket and, surprisingly, brings out a book instead of a phone. She squints her eyes, trying to make out the title, but fails. He flips through the book, turns to peer at the flower label, and returns to flipping through his book.

 _It must be a flower book_ , she realizes. The ones that inform of the meaning behind each type of flower. She knows almost all by heart by now, after three years of working at Café et Fleurs. Carnations symbolize pride and beauty. 

Fitting. He really is a beautiful man.

He looks about her age, around 19 or 20, maybe older. Or maybe younger. His face is youthful, but his alluring, sea-blue eyes look wise and haunted. His raven black hair is thick and wavy, but she can only see so much by the way it’s loosely confined by his beanie. It looks handmade, gray, and in a sort of crown shape. 

He’s fascinating. She wants to get to know him, learn about him. Trace the moles on his face until she knows them by heart. 

Christ. She needs to make his coffee first. 

She plucks two cups out of the stack, writing the order onto a sticker and slapping it onto the cup.

The bell on top of the door rings out and Betty turns to see Kevin, her best friend from college.

“Betty!” he calls, racing to the counter. “You are never going to believe what just happened to me!”

Betty looks up in greeting. “Why don’t you tell me while you make a drink?”

He places his bag down, unzipping his Princeton hoodie and throwing it onto the counter as he comes around. “Fangs asked me out today.”

Betty raises her eyebrows. “Weren’t you guys already dating?” she asks as she hands him the pumpkin spiced latte cup. 

“Well to me, we were,” Kevin says. “But now it’s official! We were getting boba after classes and he said, ‘Kevin, I really like you, want to be my boyfriend?’ and I said, ‘I like you too Fangs, I would love to be your boyfriend!'” Kevin pauses, pouring caramel into the cup. “Well, it was more romantic than that. Promise.”

Betty giggles, nudging her friend with her shoulder. “That’s great, Kevin. I’m really happy for you guys.”

“Thank you, Betty.” Kevin looks over his shoulder. “So I see that lover boy finally made it inside.”

Betty nods, securing a lid onto the black coffee. “These are for him.”

“He doesn’t seem like a latte drinker,” Kevin notes. 

Betty shrugs. “Maybe it’s for a girlfriend.”

Kevin nods. “That would make sense. He’s too hot to be single.”

“Right?” Betty agrees before thinking. Her eyes widen and she slaps her hand over her mouth comically. “I did not just say that.”

Kevin laughs, handing her the finished drink. “I think you just did. I’m glad you’ve finally come to terms with this.”

Betty huffs, walking onto the floor with the drinks. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

“You just did!” Kevin calls after her with a smirk. As she turns to stick her tongue out at him in retaliation, she bumps into someone, almost spilling the drinks.

“Shit,” she curses, chiding herself for her own clumsiness. She looks up to see blue eyes already meeting her own. 

Oh fuck. It’s him. 

“Sorry about that,” he says in a low voice. “I was just looking at the flowers.”

She clears her throat, stepping back to place his drinks at the table he was previously sitting at. His eyes look a little red and watery, but not as if he’s been crying. She locks this information away for later pondering. 

He must’ve taken his computer out while she was talking to Kevin, because there's a black, off brand computer on the table. There are stickers adoring the top of the device and her eyes catch on a familiar-looking tiger, one she’s been seeing just about everywhere for the past two years. 

“You go to Princeton?” she asks. “Sorry, I just saw the sticker on your computer.”

He nods. “Yeah, I do.”

“Me too!” she exclaims. “How have I never seen you around?”

He shrugs awkwardly. “It’s a big school.”

“It is,” she agrees. “My best friend, Kevin,” she points to where he’s watching their interaction earnestly from the counter, “studies there too.”

“Wait, Kevin Keller?” Jughead asks. 

“Yup, the one and only. Do you know him?”

He sniffles. “Yeah, my friend Fangs is dating him.”

“You know Fangs?” Betty asks. “This is insane.”

He sits back down at his table, motioning for her to join him. “We would’ve met eventually. It’s something like fate, don’t you think?”

She grins. “Maybe so.”

❀

His name is Jughead Jones. Short for Forsythe Pendleton Jones the third. She likes to call him Jug, or Juggie. Jughead is for when she’s moaning his name, hand wrapped in his hair. 

They’ve gotten to know each other quite well over the past few months. Turns out they have a number of classes together but have never seemed to notice one another. 

Funny, because now she notices him everywhere.

She notices his scent in the Princeton sweaters she steals from his closet because he never wears them. She notices how he texts her first thing every morning and last thing every night, even when he heads to bed at hours so late they could be called early. She notices that he likes to be close to her, to hold her. He takes her hand the second they leave her apartment, sits next to her instead of across from her at restaurants, if possible. It’s endearing. She thinks she loves him. 

She knows she loves him, really. It’s only been three months since she’s known him, two months since they first kissed, but she just knows. The feelings she feels for him are so overwhelming, so profound, so _real_. She loves learning new things about him.

They’re at the flower-and-coffee shop, where Jughead now works too. Toni and Kevin are also on shift behind the counter, Betty and Jughead working with the flowers.

He’s talking to a customer, advising the girl about which roses she should bring back to her mother. The scene reminds her of a conversation they had before they started dating. It seems like so long ago, even though it’s only been two months.

They were sitting at a table by the windows, near the succulents. Succulents often represent timeless, everlasting love. She smiles, thinking back on it. One day, when she and Jughead eventually move in together, she’s going to buy a shit ton of succulents.

He was sneezing, as he so often did. She never thought much of it. It was October, not quite flu season.

“Do you have a cold?” she asked.

“No, it’s just all these flowers -- I’m allergic.”

Betty raised an eyebrow, laughing sparingly. “Then why are you always in here?”

“To see you, of course.”

She blushed, getting up from her seat and walking back around the corner. He’d gotten very bold around her lately. “You’ve got to stop doing that,” she said. 

“Doing what?” he asked innocently, following her to the counter and plopping himself in the bar seat. 

“This- the flirting!” she felt her face heat up. “Frankly, it’s getting tiring rejecting you.”

“Well, you don’t have to.” He propped his elbows up on the counter, placing his chin in the palm of his hands. “Are you saying that if I pursue you long enough, you’ll eventually say yes?”

She faux contemplated this. “Hmm, I suppose I did say that, yes.”

He grinned at her. “We’ve only got forever.”

❀

Jughead comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her front and snapping her out of her memories. “You alright?”

She nods, leaning back against him and swaying slightly. She brings her hands to hold onto his arms. “I love you is all,” she says easily.

She can feel his smile and he tightens his grip around her. “Really? Are you sure?”

She giggles, turning around in his hold. She winds her arms around his neck, moving closer to him. She spots an Amaranthus next to him and reaches for it. 

Smiling slyly, she tucks it behind his ear. “An Amaranthus. For never fading feelings.”

His eyes flit around the room, landing behind her. 

“A rose,” he says, skillfully removing the thorns with his nails and weaving it gently through her hair. “Not as fancy as an Amaranthus, but the universal flower of love.”

“Say it,” she whispers, taking his hand away from her hair and placing it on her heart. 

“I love you, Betty.”

She grins, leaning into him. “Love you, too.”

❀✿

**Author's Note:**

> lemme know what you thought!


End file.
